Naruto: the Chaos Wars prologue
by Zeofang
Summary: The prologue to the Chaos War series. A simple mission escalates to dangerous levels and Naruto ends up going on a very different adventure.
1. Chapter 1

Naruto: the Chaos Wars

Disclaimer: I do not own naruto

Chapter 1: The beginning

Tsunade stared at the mission report in front of her, a steeled look on her face so as not to betray her emotions.

She raised her head and stared at the battered forms of her fellow shinobi as they were being treated in hospital beds.

None of them bore a smile nor said a word despite their mission being a success, nearly all of them were covered in cuts, bruises and burns, Kiba was being treated for a broken leg while Rock Lee's arm was getting fixed from multiple fractures.

She turned to the Sand siblings who were also part of the mission in order to strengthen ties between Hidden Sand and Hidden Leaf, they didn't look any better than the rest of the genin, even the untouchable Gaara had a nasty cut down his left side that was freshly bandaged. His face was grim and angry, Tsunade could hardly blame him, they looked like were about to cry.

Sakura, Ino, Lee and Hinata already had tears streaming down their faces as Tsunade scanned each of them. Chouji looked close enough to crying while he nursed a black eye. She wanted to try and comfort them but formalities came first, as is the duty of the Hokage.

"Congratulations on completing your first S rank mission". She announced with a tight voice to keep herself in check. "You should be very pleased to know that you will most likely be joining Shikamaru as Chuunin because of this, despite the unknown elements that caused this mission to go from an A rank to an S you adapted and handled the situation as true ninja of the leaf. Even with the…." She nearly choked on her words as she forced them out.

"... Loss of a comrade you all held together until the mission was completed, well done". She couldn't say anymore and she hated herself for it.

After this she was going back to her office and drink herself into oblivion.

Kakashi stood against the wall behind Tsunade watching the whole thing unfold, unable to say any words of encouragement he just slowly walked out of the room to leave them to mourn. He could only stare at the floor as he walked down the hall of the hospital. It tore him apart to see Lady Tsunade face when he handed her the report he had written with a heavy heart. He knew Lord Jiraiya would not take the news well either.

So many people may not care but Kakashi knew that the ones who mattered most would.

"If Sasuke had been there, would things have turned out differently?". He thought to himself remembering his last great failure as a Sensei.

It didn't matter nothing was going to change what happened no matter how much you think about it.

He walked out of the building and off to his own home, he still couldn't get the words he wrote out of his mind.

Mission report

Mission success

Casualties:

Naruto Uzumaki

Rank: Genin

Mission status: MIA


	2. Chapter 2

Naruto drifted in and out of consciousness. He was alive, that much he knew because his body ached all over, his left arm was numb which was definitely not a good thing considering what happened to it. He didn't want to move for fear of his body screaming in agony, he could tell he was on something soft and he wasn't alone because of the muffled voices in the background. The young Hokage to be could only lay there until the pain became manageable.

"How could such an easy mission go south so fast?" He pondered as he regarded his situation.

He could only curse his own lack of strength for not being able to beat that psycho, but at the very least he was able to protect his friends. He hoped they gotten out of that weird temple okay, then he just needed to worry about himself and how he was going to get out of the situation he was in.

He still couldn't believe how strong that guy was, or why he was hell bent on killing them all and opening that portal thing.

Naruto's mind drifted back to what should have been a quick and easy mission that would have gotten him some respect, but then that guy showed up and that's where it all went wrong….

(FLASHBACK)

"Heey Kakashi-sensei are we there yet?" The blonde ninja shouted out as they walked through the forest.

They had been given a mission to investigate and ancient temple, long abandoned by any human presence. There had been reports that stated there had been a strange energy radiating from there recently. Given how old the temple was made the village council concerned, prompting the Hokage to send a team to investigate. Tsunade wasn't very worried and the village was short-handed after Orochimaru's invasion, so she sent the rookie 9 and team Guy to meet with the sand siblings and check the place out.

"(sigh) no Naruto, but we should be there soon." Kakashi said with a bored expression on his face as he led the group down the path while reading his book.

"ALRIGHT!" Naruto shouted, causing his teammates to laugh, sigh or glare at the young knuckle head.

Shikamaru decided to speak up to stop Sakura from wailing on Naruto.

"What a drag, hey Kakashi-sensei? What's so special about this temple anyway that they would send all of us just to investigate?"

Upon stating this, all the young ninja perked up at the question, also wanting to know the answer.

"Well…" Kakashi said looking up for a few moments trying to remember what he was told. "The temple was said to have been built by the first Ninja, the Sage of Six Paths, which makes a historical monument of significant value for the land of fire. So our council thought it would be best to send us to ensure no bandits or thieves have moved in and desecrated it."

"The first Ninja?" exclaimed Kiba.

"Everybody knows that's a myth."

"Well somebody must have discovered how to use chakra." said Chouji as he munched on his bag of potato chips.

"I wonder what kind of warrior he was? I bet he would have been a very youthful opponent." Lee jumped into the conversation.

"Hey how do you know it was a guy!" Tenten snapped "It could have been a woman."

"Man or woman it would still be an awesome fight." Naruto added.

"Well, we will soon find out." Shino muttered loud enough so everyone could hear him, he then lifted his finger and pointed. "There it is."

The group looked up and saw and ancient looking building that was teetering on the edge of a large cliff. It was so old even the trees had grown all over it, yet the temple still looked completely intact. As they approached it they could see murals and writing in a long forgotten language covering the visible parts of the walls. There seemed to be no visible entrance apart from the huge stone doors which appeared to be shut tight, showing no signs of being touched in a hundred years.

"So does this mean mission accomplished?" Sakura said as they stared at the doors. "I mean, it looks like no one has been here at so doesn't that make our job done?"

"Aww man!" Naruto complained. "That means we don't get to kick anyone's butt."

"Now now, we won't know anything until we get inside and search the place." Kakashi said without looking up from his book.

"Well how do we get inside? There doesn't seem to be any way in from what I can see". Kina grumbled.

"Strange, my Byakugan can't see past the walls or doors." Neji stated with his blood limit active.

"Well might as well start looking until we find some way in then" Kakashi announced.

Shikamaru scanned the whole temple, which up close was huge.

"What a drag".


	3. Chapter 3

"Aww man we've been here nearly an hour!" Naruto shouted, getting fed up of walking around looking for any sort of entrance.

"Quit complaining and keep looking!" Sakura snapped causing Naruto to flinch for fear of a right hook to his face.

"I hate to say it, but I agree with Naruto." Shikamaru said staring up at the clouds, wishing he wasn't back in the village lying under his favourite tree. "There doesn't seem to be any visible entrance other than those doors and they ain't budging."

He looked over at the doors where Lee, Chouji, Kankuro and Kiba were trying to force the door open with brute force….. Unsuccessfully. Originally the group had not planned to use any unnecessary force but after an hour of trying they didn't care. They had used nearly every jutsu they knew but none of them had left even so much as a dent on the door.

Even Gaara's sand couldn't even penetrate it which made him glower at the ruin.

"Well I don't see you coming up with a better idea, lazy ass!" quipped Temari, glaring at the shadow user.

"Annoying woman, get off my back already." He responded annoyed.

As they argued Naruto looked over at the door, he couldn't help but get this weird vibe every time he look at it, it set him on edge as it made him want to leave and enter at the same time. He was getting very irritated because of it, he wasn't scared but something about the whole temple just set something off in his gut. He didn't bring it up to anyone because they didn't seem to be feeling the same and he wasn't gonna admit it, they would never let him live it down.

While everyone was taking a break he walked up to the doors, staring up at them, the uneasy feeling intensified. His whole body began shaking uncontrollably, he couldn't stop it which was making more and more angry.

Kakashi was the first to notice this and grew concerned about the blonde ninja wondering what wrong with him.

His concern turned to panic when he noticed the red chakra escaping his body. He was about to leap into action to contain Naruto, but Naruto decided to roar at the top of his lungs making everyone jump.

"STUPID DOOR, JUST OPEN DAMMIT!" His voice emanated with power.

Sakura looked shocked. "Naruto?! What-"

CRACK

Everyone look up as the door split and slowly parted revealing the entrance. Slowly with shocked face their gazes shifted from the door to Naruto. Who had immediately calmed down and turn to look at everyone with a sheepish look.

"Hehe, I guess shouting at it works." He joked

Kakashi had doubts that it was that simple, but decided to jump on the to that conclusion to avoid too many questions.

"Well done Naruto, shall we proceed then?" he asked the rest of the group.

Although a few of them had skeptical looks they all agreed and headed inside the temple. Naruto moved ahead of them, not wanting to meet their gazes for fear of any potential questions they would ask him.

As they moved along a dark corridor, Chouji spotted some old torches on the wall, so Kakashi used a fire jutsu to light them up. With the walls now visible, they were all speechless when they saw the ancient murals and pictures, showing battles, wars and monsters that none had ever seen, including Gaara and Naruto who both knew what a monster looked like.

As they continued on the corridor opened up revealing a large dome hall, in the centre was a massive circle surrounded by rings each with a different pattern on it almost like a dial. Just off next to the ring was a pedestal with the symbol on the floor displayed on it like buttons.

"Well, as interesting as this is, there isn't any reason to believe anyone is here so let's head back and declare mission accomplished" Kakashi declared to the group, relieved that there didn't seem any issues.

Naruto too was glad the feeling he had was gone, though he was annoyed to not find out why or what caused that feeling.

Click

As they all turned to leave, the all heard that sound and looked around trying to find the source of the noise, then Neji pointed to the rings as they started to move.

"Somethings wrong, be ready!" he shouted.

Everyone readied themselves as the rings continued to move in clockwise motion before stopping and a single symbol on each ring glowed. When the final ring reached its position and lit up the whole room was still for a moment that felt like an eternity to the group, then.

Booom

A massive pillar of light came crashing from the sky causing everyone to shield their eyes. Naruto could swear he saw something coming down the light as he covered his eyes.

Then just a fast as it came, the light was gone, when they fixed their gaze back to the centre of the room they saw a man standing there cloaked in black with a hood. All they could make out from his face was bright yellow eyes and a sadistic looking grin.

"Well, the doors finally open after all this time, thanks for that" he stated his grin slowly turning into a very terrifying smile.

" Now why don't you lot do me a huge favour and die".


	4. Chapter 4

"Get back!" Kakashi shouted to the group as he threw three kunai and several shuriken at the unknown opposition. The weapons flew fast and true but when they hit the man cloaked in black they bounced harmlessly off his body.

They could only stare in shock as the man picked up a kunai and examined it curiously.

"What the hell is it thing? You call this toothpick a weapon? No no no, this is a weapon!" he said and raised his free hand as a dark energy began Emitting from his body, in a burst of fire and darkness a large very dangerous looking battle axe appeared out of thin air. It was blood red with very nasty looking flames coming out of the sharpest points.

The man dropped the kunai and pulled his axe back for a swing, the team's prepared for a close attack but when he swung his weapon at them they had to think fast as a huge wave of fire came billowing towards them.

They all leaped away from the attack but Chouji and Kankuro were too slow as the flame blasted them against the wall with a sickening crunch.

"CHOUJI!" Ino screamed as she ran to help her teammate.

"Aww I'm sorry, did I hurt your little friend" the man laughed as he rested his axe on his shoulder.

"You bastard!" roared Naruto as he leapt at his enemy and threw the hardest left hook he could muster, only for it to be caught by the man.

"Oh dear, that wasn't very clever" he chuckled. "That's gonna cost you" and with that said he snapped Naruto's arm in two places causing the ninja to scream, but it was cut short with a swift kick to his gut sending him crashing into the wall and falling to the ground with thud.

Hinata gasped in horror and Sakura screamed after her fallen friend. They tried to get to him but the man in black leapt from the centre and began attacking the rest of the team's, kicking, punching and swinging his axe at them making them dodge and retreat.

Kakashi activated his Sharingan and tried to match the man blow for blow but it turned out that the cloaked man was much stronger causing the copy ninja more damage than he was dishing out.

Shikamaru thought he had him when he caught him in his Shadow Possession jutsu but even that didn't work as the man simply laughed.

"Nice trick kid, you may be a shadow user but it am a shadow master!" The man announced before sinking into his own shadow cancelling Shikamaru's technique. He appeared behind the young strategist and backhanded him into the floor.

"No!" Temari shouted rushing to his defence, using her fan she unleashed a powerful wind jutsu at the man only for him to shrug it off as it were a simple breeze.

"Aw poor girl did I hit your boyfriend?" He taunted.

Temari had a look the was a cross between enraged and terrified which didn't even seem possible. The man began to move towards her but felt something snag his foot, he looked down and saw sand creeping up his leg.

"You kids sure are a bunch of weirdos" he said in an amused tone as he followed the sand to Gaara who had both his hands up pointing at the sand with a murderous look on his face.

"You will not harm anyone else, Sand Coffin!" He shouted as his sand rushed around the body of his enemy, he closed his hands with the intent to finish this fight.

"So what's this supposed to do, turn me into a sandcastle?"

Gaara stood shocked as the man shrugged off the sand like it was dust on his clothes , he then laughed at Gaara's face before moving towards him at lightning speed, leaving a nasty looking cut in his side. The sand master fell down to the ground in agony as the man stood over him.

"Ah well guess the funs over for you" the man said as he raised his axe to finish off the sand nine.

Kakashi, who had used this time to get as many of his team out of there as possible was heading to grab Naruto when he saw what about to happen to Gaara, with lightning speed he activated his signature Jutsu and rushed at his enemy.

"Chidori!" he yelled as he slammed his attack into the cloaked man's back causing his opponent to grunt and stagger away from him.

"Temari! Take Gaara and go I'll try and stall him!"

The young wind mistress could only nod as she grabbed her brother and headed for the exit.

"You bastard! That actually hurt!" the man said with a chilling calmness in his voice, his amused smiled no longer present.

Power blasted from his body as he readied himself into a battle stance, his axe glowing viciously.

"I'm gonna kill you then I'm gonna enjoy killing all of your buddies too, and your realm will know the wrath of the Chaos Lords!" he roared as his power grew.

Kakashi didn't have a clue what he was talking about but readied himself for what he guessed was his last stand.

Booooom

"Roaaaar!"

Naruto, despite his injury was still conscious as he was watched his friends and teammates fall one by one. His anger swelling with each swing of the cloaked man's axe, at the very breaking point, as the man prepared to cut down his Sensei, when he mentioned the words "Chaos Lords" the Nine-tailed Fox's own anger stirred as if it recognised it, sending Naruto into a full blown rage. His arm that was broken was limp as he slowly stood up, boiling red chakra slowly enveloping him.


	5. Chapter 5

Naruto vanished from sight in mere moments, reappearing behind the cloaked man delivering a great kick to the side of his head causing the man to stagger not realising what just happened.

"What the- what just happened?" he shouted with irritation and confusion in his voice. He turned to Naruto and could only stare puzzled as a red bubbling shroud in the form of a fox surrounded the young ninja. He narrowed his gaze, Naruto's broken arm hung limp but he looked ready for a fight.

"You lot are really weird, you know that?" the man announced before readying his axe for an attack. "But you'll die just the same."

The cloaked man leapt at Naruto, swinging his axe down on him, Naruto spun to the side moving out of the way of the weapon as it cut straight into the ground. He jumped and delivered a swift punch into the man's face, landed behind him before using both his feet to slam the cloaked man into the wall.

"Where did you get this strength from? It reminds me of….him!" the man shouted no longer finding any of this funny.

Naruto roared again as red chakra flooded his body causing a second tail to appear on his shroud. His power skyrocketed as he glared at his enemy with blood red eye.

"Fine then, killing you will be the next best thing!" the man announced summoning his axe to his side, dark fire seeping from his body.

"Let's go!"

The two jumped, colliding midair in a blast of energy, the man pushed and slashed Naruto into the wall but the young ninja somersaulted he bounced off the wall sending a claw made of red chakra at his enemy, the man used his fire to push himself out the way landed on the floor, he held up his hand and sent a blast of dark flame at Naruto who just roared at it, the sheep force from his roar dissipated the attack.

Kakashi could only stare in shock as the two leapt at each other colliding repeatedly in a flurry of fire and rage, he wanted to jump in and help but he felt Naruto was too consumed by anger he wouldn't be able to recognise friend from foe, instead he used this time to get the last of the genuine teams out of the temple. He used his Sharingan to capture all the the cloaked man's moves and battle tactics so if Naruto didn't fair well he would jump in to take over the fight, now though he was worried as Naruto burst with even more power as his shroud sprouted a third tail pushing the enemy back but he was concerned what would happen if he kept sprouting tails, would the Nine-tails be released?

As Kakashi pondered this the two combatants had move their fight to the centre of the room where the two rings were. Naruto was starting to lose himself and he knew he had to finish this fight now, he summoned a dark Rasengan in his hand and leapt at his enemy before slamming his signature jutsu down at the cloaked man. The man was able to move out of the way but still received damage to his chest, what had him worried though was that Naruto attack had hit the floor, somehow activating the rings causing them to light up.

"You idiot! Look what you've done!" the man bellowed staring in horror as the ring began glowing signalling the ignition of the portal.

Naruto stared in shock, his shroud disappearing with lack of rage, he stared at the man then turned to his teacher.

"Naruto get out of there now!" Kakashi shouted running to the aid of his pupil. Naruto turned and leapt at Kakashi, reaching for him with his good arm, just as he was about to reached the blast of light hit the ground sending the cloaked man away screaming in outrage. Naruto legs were caught by it as Kakashi grabbed his hand and pulled with all his might but the pull of the light was far stronger and he could feel his grip on Naruto slipping.

Naruto stared at his Sensei realising he wasn't getting out of this.

"Don't worry Kakashi-sensei" Naruto said feeling the pull on his legs strengthen. Kakashi stared at him wide eyed and desperate.

"I'll be back before you know it, I promise" he said with a goofy grin.

"And I never go back on my word, that my ninja way!" those were the last words he said to his teacher.

Despite the situation Kakashi couldn't help but feel proud of him in that moment, his pride quickly turned to horror as he lost his grip and Naruto was sucked up by the portal and disappeared in a flash of light.

"No!" Kakashi yelled but nothing he could do would change what just happened. Naruto was gone.

Kakashi walked out of the temple and found the rest of the team, they were nursing their wounds and preparing for a fight if Kakashi wasn't the one who walked out.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura shouted with relief.

"Thank goodness it's you, we saw the light, is that monster gone?"

Kakashi nodded at her question, she looked behind him expectantly.

"Well then, where's Naruto? That knuckle head, jumping at that guy like that, he is in so much trouble!" Sakura growled.

Kakashi took a deep breath

"The enemy was pushed back into the portal by Naruto and back where he came from."

They all looked relieved at his announcement but noted his tone.

"Unfortunately Naruto was also caught the in light and was taken as well….. He's gone. Classified as Missing in action."

As he finished, his words hit them all like a freight train. None of them could speak, none of them could think.

Sakura fell to her knees, tears streaming down her face she took a deep breath.

"NARUTOOO


	6. Chapter 6

Present:

Naruto could feel himself start to wake up all he could remember from the light was a falling sensation then landing on something. He started to make out the voices in the background he dared not move in case they were with the cloaked man, he kept his eyes closed as he listened to the conversation.

"I'm telling you he's probably on of them!" One voice stated it sounded a little older than Naruto

"And I'm telling you if he was he wouldn't be falling out of the sky with a broken arm and injuries all over" another voice said, a girl, maybe around his age.

"Well we'll find out when he wakes up, then we can just ask him" a third voice piped in, another guys.

There was a pause.

The first male spoke.

"Why would he tell us he is an enemy for crying out loud?!"

A fourth voice spoke up, a young girl's voice with a slight squeak in it.

"Guy's I probably should have said earlier but he's awake and has been this whole time, probably listening to the comedy show that it you three."

There was a silence and Naruto could feel their eye on him, he slowly opened his eyes.

"Hey there, are you ok?" the first girl asked.

Naruto stared at his surroundings, he was in a cave and propped against a wall his arm was in a sling wrapped up. He had a million questions as he looked at his audience.

The first girl was young no older than him but her skin was slightly dark and she wore blue robes, the second girl was sitting against the wall opposite him arms folded, she seemed a little younger and there seemed to be something wrong with her eyes. The first boy was standing at the cave entrance eying him like he might jump and attack them any minute, he wore blue robes and looked like the first girl. The final boy was sitting in the middle of the floor staring him a smile on his face and the first thing Naruto noticed about him was-

"Why are you Bald?" he croaked out unable to contain his confusion. There was a lot of questions he wanted to ask but when he saw the kids shiny bald head, that took priority.

"I was raised by monks" the boy answered earnestly.

Naruto couldn't argue with that logic, he didn't have the energy left to. He was able to ask the basic need to know questions.

"Who are you guys and where am I?"

"Well" the first girl answered.

"We are in cave in the fire nation, my name is Katara, that sourpuss over there is my brother Sokka, the girl over there is Toph and the kid on floor is the Avatar, but we call him Aang."

Naruto stared blankly for a moment. Then simply announced

"Something is definitely not right"

THE END

NARUTO WILL RETURN

IN

THE CHAOS WARS PART 1

NARUTO AND THE LAST AIRBENDER

AUTHOR:

Thanks for reading the prologue to my series I've had floating in my head for literally years, I've finally got around to it and I want to hear how you think it sounds.

Any questions I'll be happy to answer

Zeofang out


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